Identifying Volcanism in the Solar System

Description

Undergraduate Geology - Part 1 (Earth Structure) Note on Identifying Volcanism in the Solar System, created by siobhan.quirk on 11/05/2013.
siobhan.quirk
Note by siobhan.quirk, updated more than 1 year ago
siobhan.quirk
Created by siobhan.quirk over 11 years ago
177
1

Resource summary

Page 1

The only active volcanoes in the Solar System are: Io, a moon of Jupiter: Io is Jupiter's closest moon and orbits in a matter of hours. Heat arises in the core of Io as it becomes stretched and compressed by Jupiter's great gravity during it's orbit. The surface of Io is a mixutre of green and blue representing the different allotropes of sulfur compounds spewed from its volcanoes. Io is the most volcanically active body in the solar system Triton, a moon of Neptune: the most distant know volcanically active body from the sun. Trition is a very large moon which in composition is almost identical to Pluto, its surface is almost craterless and it has an atmosphere composed largely of ammonia and nitrogen. Even from such a distance solar heating is thought to drive the volcanism and 'nitrogen geysers' have been observed. Enceladus, a moon of Saturn: through the use of photography aboard the Voyager and Casini space probes Enceladus has been confirmed as a site of cryovolcanism - volcanism where volatiles like water, nitrogen and methane are erupted rather than liquid rock.

New Page

Show full summary Hide full summary

Similar

Earth Structure Definitions
siobhan.quirk
Planetary Geology
siobhan.quirk
Origins of the Solar System
siobhan.quirk
Exploring Space
siobhan.quirk
The Layers of the Earth
siobhan.quirk
Meteorites and Impact Craters
siobhan.quirk
Direct Evidence for the Structure of the Earth
siobhan.quirk
Indirect Evidence for the Structure of the Earth
siobhan.quirk
Magnetic Earth
siobhan.quirk
Reducing the Impact of Earthquakes
siobhan.quirk
Detecting Earthquakes
siobhan.quirk